Case 1: Marionette
To reach the index of the series, click here: Fairy Tail: Black Glass Previous Chapter: Case 1: Thank Ewe ---- -Sucked in a deep breath and blinked, the world changed from the awful ground to the grey sky and pouring rain that had never looked so beautiful. She was somewhat aware she was still screaming, for they came out in splutters and chokes but what stood out to her the most, was that she was in mid-air. She screamed while falling, dread pouring into her mind as she realized she was going to die exactly the same way she had hoped to kill Nevron, falling, screaming and dreadfully alone, when the familiar voice tiredly rang out in her head. “''Look to your right.” Blue light flashed in the corner of her eye and she stopped falling as Soren caught her in a bubble of air. She had tried to be brave, to keep it together like the proper Captain of the Magic Council she was, but when she saw Soren’s bloody, damaged form, the mixed expression of fear and concern on his face, and the fact she had almost died twice in a matter of seconds, tears filled her eyes and she began to cry. It was all just far too much for her to handle. Soren gently held her in the bubble, his magic pulsing, sending out a radar to check the magical frequency was hers. And when he had checked thrice and made sure it really was her, he gently floated with her to the ground and hugged her, softly stroking her mattered hair, congratulating her on a job well done. It was all over. The Survivor He wasn’t too sure what had happened, but when Nevron woke up he was lying face down in a crater that was slowly filling up with rain water. One second he was about to finish off the Arch-Sage, having finally grasped the fundamentals of the beautiful reality that was the One Magic, and the next he was lying down in a ditch. Without even confirming it, he knew a large portion of his bones had been broken, his muscles didn’t respond to him and he could feel his organs shutting down one by one. It was a fascinating experience. He was curious as to how he had ended up like this though, curious as to exactly what Araseph had done to his body to end up like this. His eyes failed him but he could sense the magic, he had a visitor. Were he in a better condition, he would’ve dusted himself off and met them standing up, asking them what they wanted. But as things were now, the lower half of his jaw was next to his head and he wasn’t exactly in the state to get up and fix it. Hopefully his guest would understand. After several seconds of watching him, a boot came and kicked Nevron’s head, rolling him over so he was now face up. His eyes flickered and even as water pelted and got in his eyes, he could make out the distinctly orange hair. “The chimera told me you would be dead when I found you.” Conway Blackwood said. “Guess she was wrong.” So he had gone and spoken to The Saber. He wondered for only a moment if she was still alive, although if he knew anything about the fire-starter, she probably was. What an enigma Conway Blackwood was. For all his strength and abilities, he had never sought out a life of destruction, as far as Nevron knew he had never even killed anybody by choice. If his mouth worked, he would’ve asked Conway why he was the person he was today. What did he hope to gain from being so passive. ''Who was he. But as it was, he could only watch as Conway spoke. “Don’t you think it’s funny how fate works? Just last week I was the one in your position. Although…” Conway picked up Nevron’s lower jaw that had been torn off his face and lazily tried to mash it back into place. “You’re not looking too hot yourself.” He felt the moisture in his clothes disappear, and through a cloud of steam saw Conway making a roof of fire, shielding them both from the rain. “I don’t blame you for this. I really don’t I mean, we never really talked about it after all. But I don’t take too kindly to the fact you tried to not only kill Florence, but you also tried to turn her into a terrorist. You see, us members of Moon Drop, we’ve gone through a fair bit together and so it’s only natural we’d look out for each other. Now normally I’d leave you alone to die like this, but the fact is, you not only went after Florence, but you also tried to turn me into a terrorist.” “So when I got back to my body, it got me thinking “What’s the worst thing I could do to Nevron?” And then I remembered, you told me how much you hated Iceberg that one time didn’t you?” It was only by a fraction by Nevron’s eyes widened. “So, I got in touch with some people, found some others who knew of your plans. Best of all, I found out you not only had a boss but that there’s a whole organisation looking for you. Can you imagine my surprise that, the great Nevron is actually just a lackey who ran away from home?” “I’m told they gave you a call, but they also told me from the lack of reaction that you were probably in another person’s body at the time. Makes things a little bit awkward, now doesn’t it? There’s somebody out there who knows of your plans.” Conway shrugged. “Just unlucky. Well anyways, they offered to help put you down as long as I hand you over to them so…” The heat from the flames dried his eyes and soon enough, his eyes stopped working altogether. He could tell, from the muted rain, the quiet crackling and Conway’s voice that was barely there, his ears were failing too. Eventually he would be dead without even realizing it. He thought about the first time he had met Conway, when they had been in the same room trying to kill one another while a hurricane tore down their surroundings in Iceberg. When they had both survived, he had offered Conway the chance to work for him. Little did he know things would end this way. Well it didn’t matter too much, he was going to be dead anyway. He smiled as he remembered the end of Conway’s first job, how sad he had been when he explained his jobs always ended with a casualty. As he drifted off to sleep, he noticed how he couldn’t feel anything, his world was a complete void and he mused to himself, wondering if this time he was the casualty at the end of Conway’s job and wondering if this time, Conway would care at all. Together in the Room At night, when the sun had settled down and the sky got dimmer, the orbs that powered QuadDracoras’ guild lit up the mountain, deep hues of orange and red painted the sky that should’ve been blue and silver. The rain poured just as heavily as before, and inside the guild where Araseph’s eyes couldn’t see beyond the orange lights and her ears couldn’t hear above the ‘''pitter-patter''’ of the rain, she felt safe, like her own room was cut off from the rest of the world. A week had passed since Nevron disappeared, Araseph had reported that Nevron should’ve been at the bottom of the mountain, and the Council was still looking for his body but when it was all done and dusted, they had done a good job. They spent the evening in Araseph’s ward, the bed she had spent the a few days in now being occupied by a bandaged Soren. When he rested, or was looking somewhere else people would quickly stick their heads into the room, eager to catch a glimpse of the injured Arch-Sage. The Council’s doctors couldn’t heal Soren up completely, so they had asked Nora to take over his recovery. Nora shooed away the visitors and checked over his injuries once again, the two of them were in a deep, quiet conversation about the nature of his wounds and Araseph shifted uncomfortably while grinding some plants. At Soren’s request there were sofas and lavish armchairs, tables and paintings on the wall, and a wide, flat lachrima on the wall across the window that showed a woman in a suit reporting about Seven’s mountain range. Mages had detected ridiculously large traces of magic in the area last week, and an investigation into the origins of the magical readings was being conducted. Conway chuckled as he read the headline. “Enough magic to power the nation for a week.” He turned his head to look at Araseph sitting on the floor in front of him while resting his own feet on the armrest “You’re really as strong as the rumours said you were huh?” Somewhere behind them she imagined Soren raising his eyebrow at the jab but keeping quiet, the bandage on his jaw would’ve stopped him from talking regardless. Araseph smiled, but it was a smile that was anything but happy. “I surprise even myself sometimes.” The sound of an interview filled the room and Araseph asked, transferring the plant paste to a container. “So, what now? Nevron’s dead.” “Missing.” Conway corrected. “Rule of thumb- if his body’s not there he’s not dead.” “Well let’s just say, hopefully, he’s dead for now.” Conway rolled his eyes. “What’s next in store for the great…uh…Furenzder…er…rer?” “'Feueranzunder'. As for what’s next…” He lolled his head back and sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve just been walking around Earthland and doing my own thing. Sometimes people would give me money and I’d do things for them.” “Like working for a black-market dealer who also turned out to be a terrorist?” “To be fair, he offered to pay double what I was already making.” “Yeah because that definitely paints you in a better light…” Araseph muttered. Conway laughed. “Working for Nevron…I earned a lot of money, enough for me to take some time off. But it put me in a pretty bad spot. You know the country next to us?” “Iceberg?” “I’m a wanted man over there.” “Really?” “I uh…might have broken into a building while working for him.” “That’s not too bad…you can always go through Bosco instead right?” “Punched their president. Quite recently too.” “What? How did you even…whatever, what about Fiore? It sounds like a nice place.” He rubbed his neck and turned his attention back to the screen. “Oh come on!’ Araseph said. “So what, you’re stuck in Seven?” “Well there’s always travelling by boat but it’s not my thing. I’ve done almost all there is to do in Seven. I might drop by Pilse Navarina, see the old members of Moon Drop again. After that, who knows?” Araseph chewed her lip. The screen began to show a report about political tensions in Seven. She took out another bundle of herbs and began to tear them. “You could always come with us.” She heard Soren cough behind them. “Us?” “You know, me and Soren.” “Eh…I’d rather keep my options open. In case somebody out there still wants to pay me. Magic Council’s also not my thing. No offense.” She shrugged. “None taken.” “Well that.” Nora said, grinning at Soren. “Is such a shame isn’t it? I’m sure Soren is just devastated that Conway can’t come along with you.” Conway chortled, he actually chortled. Araseph looked around the room confused. “Is there something I’m missing?” Soren murmured behind his bandages and Nora translated. “The Council didn’t really like Moon Drop when it first started out. It wasn’t an official guild and they openly broke a lot of regulations the Council had in place.” “I remember the days when we thought we did something good.” Conway chimed in. “And then the next second Silas would have to go talk to the chairman about something and get chewed out.” “Silas?” “Silas Cocytus. He was the one that founded Moon Drop.” Nora explained. Araseph noticed how both Nora and Conway gave a sad smile at the mention of Silas and Nora continued. “By the time the war broke out, the Council and Moon Drop were on…less than civil terms.” “Your chairman told us we would be arrested if we ever interfered with their operations ever again.” Conway said. “Again? What’d you do before?” “That’s another story.” Conway said. “But ever since the war, we’ve just held a mutual respect. But the Council still doesn’t like us, ain’t that right Mr. Arch-Sage?” Behind his bandages, Soren murmured again and Nora gave a small smile. Silence filled the room once more and as the reporter rambled about the increasing political tensions in Seven, Araseph poked another question. “So…what’s happening with Nevron?” Conway turned his attention away from the screen. “What about him? He’s done with. Whatever happened last week, you two beat him to a pulp and he ran away. That’s it, isn’t it?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, are we sure there isn’t any more? You guys don’t seem really bothered by the whole “''I see myself as a messiah to one of the most dangerous groups in history.” Thing.” “Well…is there more?” “There’s that call I got while I was in Nevron’s body?” When everybody stared at her in surprise Araseph hesitated. “Did…did I not tell anybody about this?” Nora frowned. “Don’t think you did. Is this something important?” “I uh, got a call while I was in Nevron’s body.” “You didn’t think to mention this until now?” “Hey.” Araseph held her hands up in defense. “A LOT happened that day okay? It’s…somethings may have slipped my mind.” Soren gave out a noise between a cough and a laugh, to which Araseph shot him a glare before continuing. “While I was in Nevron’s body, I got a call. It was a woman, she said their plan was cancelled or whatever, said they found Nowie and figured out the Revelations Ray couldn’t break open this thing called the Eternal Prison?” Conway raised his eyebrows and a slight smile crept on his face. Nora asked, suddenly concerned. “They found Nowie? Are you sure that’s what the woman said?” She nodded. “The woman also mentioned a boss and a “HQ”.” “That’s…admittedly not great.” Nora turned to Soren. “What do you think about all this?” Soren murmured and Nora took off the bandages on his jaw. “It’s not over then.” He rubbed his jaw. “Someone is working behind the scenes, keeping out of sight as much as possible. Of course, it’s possible Nevron might’ve been a loose cannon but we have to be careful. I fear the good moments are starting to come to an end. Bad things are coming our way, and it’s coming soon.” “Wow.” Conway said. “That was pretty dramatic.” “He copied that from ‘''Hazelnut’.” Araseph said. “The point is," Soren continued. "Nevron almost tore up the country and came close to activating the Revelations Ray, and that’s ignoring the fact he actually took over Araseph’s Crygis. We somehow defeated someone who almost destroyed this country, and someone is above him, someone stronger and us four, we have to be ready for that.” “So what? Do we just go off and train for a couple weeks then go out and beat the bad guys? Is that all it is then?” Araseph said. “Well before that, there’s something I’m really not clear about. What was Nevron trying to do this whole time? The Revelations Ray? Eternal Prison? You honestly can’t expect us to just charge in and fight someone without even knowing what this is about.” Nora huffed. “And even before that, why are we involved in this? If this is national security, it’s an issue with you two and the Magic Council. I’ve got a guild I need to run.” Conway said. “Yeah and I’ve got-“ “Shut up.” “ok sorry.” “Because.” Soren started. “If it’s as big as it’s sounding like, we’re going to need all the help we can get. The Council has enough people but frankly, we don’t know what we’re up against. I’d rather get everybody prepared and throw everything we’ve got when the time comes.” “So…” Nora said. “You’re just getting everybody prepared? I don’t have to come along on your merry adventures and go camping with you around Seven?” Soren tilted his head. “We don’t even know who our enemies are. I don’t see why you would have to go camping in the first place.” At that, Nora visibly relaxed and became happier. “Well alright then.” She said. “But you still need to explain what’s actually happening. Both of you.” “Oh no.” Araseph crossed her arms to form an ‘X’. “I actually don’t know either. The Council doesn’t teach this stuff, it’s all secret agent spy stuff.” Conway raised his eyebrows. “Even you, a Captain doesn’t know? Well this should be good.” All eyes turned to Soren who, even though he was in a bed and wrapped in bandages made it look like he was at the head of the room. He sighed and motioned for Nora to shut the door and close the blinds. At another glance she rolled her eyes and the Guildmaster tapped several seals around the room. The walls shimmered and the screen immediately shut off. No magic could be cast in the room, and any sound wouldn’t travel past the walls. Soren sighed and began. “Where do I begin?” The Light Burst War “I’ll start off with what we all know. Nevron Figurate’s plans. Nevron took over people who were from specific factions. Major factions and key players of the war. Lucian from QuadDracoras. He tried to get Florence but used Conway from Moon Drop. He got Araseph from Fabula Nova. And as for Magic Council, we can assume he was after me. In addition to being key players, every person I just mentioned is capable of destruction on a massive scale. We’re talking, in their best condition, being able to wipe towns off of a map. We know he went after Port Tara, and Solar Lagoon. Araseph figured this out quite quickly, but he was after Anthem’s Cradle and Midnight College as well. Those four towns each have temples that bear the blood seal, a seal that can only be activated when a large number of people die almost instantly in the area. Those four seals align on a map to mark the location of Nevron’s base in the mountain ranges of Seven. It’s also the exact spot of where the Revelations Ray is.” “You told me about that.” Araseph said. “Some kind of doomsday device they built in case the war got out of hand.” Nora frowned. “They left a doomsday device out in the open? Fiore’s one is guarded by the Council isn’t it?” “Well…you’re not wrong.” Soren said. “Nevron never saw it even though he knew where it was. The Ray’s hidden in another dimension until all the seals are broken.” “So he managed to get through two of them and needed another two?” “Precisely. On top of that, another layer of security exists for the Ray but that’s confidential. What I can tell you though, is that he wasn’t going to use it himself. He was hoping for somebody as powerful as the members of Fabula Nova to use the ray. I actually figured this out just a couple minutes ago.” “Really?” Araseph said. Soren nodded. “When he took over your body, I was wondering why he didn’t head for Midnight College or Anthem’s Cradle straight away, I came from the Magic Council and I met him so I thought it was weird he was heading towards the Council. I then realized, he wasn’t using the Revelations Ray to just try and destroy the country, he was using it to try and crack open the Eternal Prison.” “There it is again.” Conway said. “So what is the Eternal Prison?” “To explain it properly, I need to back up a little bit though. What do you three know about the history of Seven?” “Seriously?” “Come on it'll be fun! You can learn all about history.” “Good lord...I don’t think Seven’s that special really.” Nora said. “I guess there is the weird part where, compared to other countries we tend to have a higher population of religions.” Soren nodded. “And why do you think we have that?” “It’d be from the family wouldn’t it?” “All families have a source. When this country started, Seven was in a weird spot. Ishgar was going through the Dragon King Festival at the time, and although Seven had their fair share of conflicts between Dragons and Humans, we were mostly left alone during the festival. Most dragons steered clear of our country, because even though they wanted to hunt down the human race to extinction, we were protected. Seven was protected by gods.” “What?” Araseph said. Nora tilted her head and Conway sported an amused expression on his face. “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to laugh.” He said. Soren looked at him. “I’m being completely serious right now. Seven had gods that chose this country as their home. To be exact, they had seven different gods, hence our country’s title.” A soft “''ooohh''” came out of Araseph’s lips. She blushed when they all looked at her. “I won’t go into detail about these seven gods, largely because there’s very little information about them. We do know for a fact that they did exist though, throughout history Seven was split up into seven different tribes, that slowly began to splinter and fracture into even more different tribes, cultures and beliefs until we have our country today. As a tribe began to disperse, so would their stories and interpretations. Their connection to their god would grow weaker and weaker, until eventually nobody even knew for sure if that god existed or how to connect with them. The god would then go passive and sleep until they’re called upon once more.” “Wait hold on.” Conway said. “I’m having a bit of trouble understanding this. What kind of god are we talking about?” Soren tilted his head in confusion. “Are we talking about the Judeo Christian God? Is god another word for a really strong person? Like what?” Soren gave a small “hmm” as he thought of an example. “Do you guys remember, a couple years back, when Fiore got invaded by Alvarez, you must remember it right? They walked through Seven while we were still recovering, tore apart Bosco and attacked Fiore? One of their mages…what was it? Something 12?” “Spriggan 12.” Nora finished. “Yes, the Spriggan 12, there was that one person who could use God Soul for Chronos.” Conway paled. “There are seven of those gods in this country?” “Who knows. That’s the most likely theory about this country’s history.” Nora frowned. “How come I’ve never heard of such a thing?” “Can you imagine what would happen if the world knew about this? If this idea was made public? Having just one god is already ridiculous, having seven in one country? This place would turn into a mad battlefield, different countries would descend on us and devour everything. They’ll team up, tear this country apart and then fight over the remains. It would be a slaughter and who knows, what if there aren’t seven gods here anyway?” “What if there aren’t any gods in the first place?” Nora said. “Ah. That’s where you’re wrong. Araseph, did Nowie ever tell you where he was from or what he thought about humanity?” “Uh, not that I can think of. Then again I don’t remember much of Fabula Nova. Is this important?” “It’d help, but the Council already knows the important parts. Nowie, the Council always saw him as a potential threat. An extraordinarily powerful dark-mage, they kept an eye out for him but never really did anything. While other dark-mages often went around toppling kingdoms or kidnapping or dealing with the underground, Nowie very rarely did anything that brought attention. It was only when they actually caught wind of what he was planning the Council started to act, hence the beginning of the Light Burst War. We found out, to put it simply, he was one of those guys that had basically lost faith in the human race.” “Oh, so like your average dark mage then?” Conway said. “Well kind of. Except unlike your average dark mage, not only was he stupidly strong, he also had someone by his side. Infinite Void Seifer. See, our sources told us, Nowie wanted to wipe out systems of power. He wanted a world or at least a country where everybody was equal, no man ruled over others and each respected each other. A place where everybody lived in harmony.” Nora raised an eyebrow. “Nowie was a Communist?” “…let’s not put it like that. But basically, yes. When he strived for equality, his first go to plan was to kill a large population, then rule over them all, make them fear him. Something about decreeing everybody to be equal except for him, since he’s ruling over them.” “Like a tyrant then?” Araseph said. Nora leaned over. “They’re not mutually exclusive.” She whispered. Araseph gave another soft “''ooohh''” as Soren rolled his eyes. “Ok yes, Nowie was also a tyrant. But instead, of doing that, Seifer was actually the one convincing him his plan wouldn’t work out. That there would always be somebody to oppose him, and people weren’t equal if he was above them all.” “So the Infinite Void, the second-in-command of Fabula Nova, was actually a good guy?” Conway said carefully. “They plotted together to instead give everybody equal amounts of magic.” “Oh that’s…surprisingly not too bad…right?” Conway said carefully. Soren nodded. “In pure theory, it’s not a bad idea. Magic is a fantastic resource, without it the world would literally be dying right now. But the fact is, and you might not like this, is that not everybody can use magic. Of the world’s entire population, only ten percent of the world can use magic or even has magic inside of them. Think about that for a second, one in ten people are able to use magic. We flip that number around, ten percent of the world rules over the other ninety percent of all humans. Like it or not, the fact is that mages rule the world. People born without magic in societies are often reduced to manual labour to get by in life. Even if we say the world is getting along quite nicely, for those that are born without magic or have extremely poor talents, the world is pretty rough. And frankly, it’s easy for us to say this since we’re the ones that have magic, we’re the top ten percent, but the reality is that life is really not fair. Nowie and Seifer worked together to change all that, to make a new world where everybody had magic.” Nora said. “I read somewhere, in another language Fabula Nova translates to New Story or…''New Beginnings''?” “Makes sense doesn’t it? With their plan, the world would literally be changed, a new world would be born if everybody could use magic. Imagine that.” Araseph bit her lip. “So…what’s the problem with that? Everybody has magic, everybody’s happy…right?” “Well.” Soren said. “Apart from the likely possibility of society collapsing completely.” At Araseph’s confused expression he explained. “If people had a choice, I don’t think anybody would willingly choose agriculture or industry as their lifestyle. Well some people might, but if there’s the option of going out hunting and fighting other people, compared to farming and manual labour, I think most people would go with the former, and that imbalance would ruin the society Seven runs on. So, society would risk collapsing, the Council also found problems that would, through a snowball effect, affect economics, politics and a whole heap of other stuff but being the Council, they kind of focused on those two the most. So, on its own, already that sounds like a bad idea, right? Good in theory, but as long as the trace idea of a society or order exists, it just doesn’t work. And then we have the actual plan, as to how Nowie intended to achieve that. What you should understand about a god, is the reason why they’re gods in the first place. The fundamental that separates them from incredibly powerful mages. Ignoring the mythology and who they are as beings, the reason they’re so powerful and exist on another scale is because, rather than blood and flesh they’re made of eternano. A single god is said to have trillions of Edeas of Magic Power inside of them. By comparison, etherion used less than 3 billion Edeas and you all have a rough idea how strong that is. What Nowie intended to do, was to find a god with that scale of magic inside of them, capture them, and with a team of specific, powerful individuals, kill the god.” The three before Soren sat there in stunned silence. Araseph spoke cautiously. “Fabula Nova…wasn’t about taking over Seven, they were about killing a god? Is that even possible?” Soren continued. “The Council thought Nowie was insane, delusional. At first the plan was to just leave him alone, he’ll probably end up killing himself or something. Turns out, something our spies didn’t actually pick up was that Nowie wasn’t just a Wind Magic user, he was actually a Sky God Slayer.” “Oh my god…” Araseph whispered. “I don’t know the specifics. I’d dare say the only ones who even knew how their plan would actually go down were Nowie and Seifer, but that was what they planned to do. The Council’s scientists and historians did a lot of research as soon as this information came up, and Ladon found an excerpt from Seven’s creation mythology. I’m paraphrasing of course, but the idea was that magic flowed into the world because a god cut their finger off and bled. And in that instant, all the creatures on the Earth were gifted with the access to magic. Now as to whether or not a god bleeding is where all our magic comes from, that’s open to interpretation. But that’s what Ladon believed, and to an extent Nowie probably believed it as well. Because if that story was true, then Nowie’s plan would mean that if he were to kill a god in a specific way and not only kill them, but released trillions of Edea into the atmosphere, every single living being in the world would be given a magical boost.” Conway raised an eyebrow. “How big of a boost are we talking?” Nora crunched the numbers in her head. “Trillions…even if it was evenly divided among the world’s population that’s…” she frowned. “I don’t think Nowie thought this one through. If the world has roughly seven billion people, between one trillion edeas that’s only a hundred forty-three edeas per person. A child can make more than that quite easily. The average mage has maybe a two to three thousand Edeas inside of them, a hundred forty-three is nothing.” “That’s right. By comparison I have roughly twelve thousand Edeas inside of me. But what about if the magic was focused specifically to Seven’s population? You’re assuming the magic would disperse globally evenly, but wouldn’t it be much more concentrated at the centre of the explosion?” “Well alright…so Seven has how many people?” “As of last year? A measly ten million people.” “Wait really?” “The war hit Seven pretty hard. A lot of people left the country afterwards. Well it’s not like Seven had that many people in the first place, prior to the war Seven had about 15 million people?” “Alright so doing the maths…assuming it’s by a trillion…” Nora’s eyes widened. “Oh god, 66 666 Edeas of magic per person.” “That can’t be right.” Araseph said. “That’s way too much for even a normal mage.” “At least.” Soren said. “Even for experienced mages, giving them ten thousand Edeas right off the bat would make them unstable. 66 666 Edeas, and majority of those people wouldn’t even be experienced mages. You’re talking about giving teenagers, adults, even dark-mages who are already powerful, a massive boost in power. The average mage would have twenty-two times their current magical power. People who have never even touched magic before would suddenly be capable of ripping the earth apart and causing hurricanes or other natural disasters, and that’s just the beginning.” “It wouldn’t just be society collapsing.” Araseph said. “The entire world would be destroyed if that happened.” “Which is why the Light Burst War was such a big deal. Nowie found traces of a lost tribe and from there figured out where one of these gods were being kept. It was the first time all the leaders of Fabula Nova had arrived for a single battle, and probably the first time any of us had ever met Araseph.” “Sunrise Theatre” Conway said. Soren nodded. “The attack on Pilse Navarina. The citadel had been built to seal the Lightning Goddess, it’s magic sealing borders were to suppress the goddess and keep her sleeping for as long as possible. Of course, that all went downhill when Nowie went and broke all her seals. So the Light Burst War happened, Fabula Nova was defeated, and the Council managed to track down the Lightning Goddess. The issue was that now she was awake, there was no way to shut her down. She wasn’t going to go back to some old shrine after being kept sleeping for over four hundred years, they couldn’t kill her in case the thousands of Edeas were unleashed on the world. So, they built the Eternal Prison. A cube stored deep underground surrounded by several layers of magic, on top of that it’s inside an ocean of magma. The only way to feasibly access the cube is through a passageway even I don’t know the location of that is guarded constantly by the Council’s elite members. And even if you did somehow find out where the passageway is, defeat all the guards, swim through the magma, break through all the magic, and open the cube which is apparently made of some new metal the Council made, the contents of the cube are constantly changing.” “Changing?” Nora repeated. “The contents of the cube constantly cycle through 76 different dimensions per second. If someone were to somehow break into the cube, they would only see the Lightning Goddess for less than a second.” “Why’s it 76? That’s such a weird number.” Araseph said. “Why couldn’t it be 77, or 75, or just make it 70 instead of 76.” “Because that’s the number of prisoners inside of the cube today. Criminals who couldn’t be arrested and subdued by ordinary means, people who the Council wished to erase from all records, the country’s most dangerous and worst criminals. Saying that though, there’s only seventy-five of them, the Lightning Goddess being the seventy-sixth one of course.” “That’s the Eternal Prison? That’s what Nevron wanted to use the Revelations Ray on?” Conway said. “In the call I got though, they told me Nowie said the Ray couldn’t break open the prison though.” Araseph said. “I wouldn’t be surprised.” Soren said. “Whatever new metal they made the cube out of, it’s completely resistant to magic. It’s made of ores from a different dimension is what I’ve heard, so nothing you throw at it would work.” Nora cleared her throat. “Is that it then? The Light Burst War, this crazy event that was kept a complete secret from even those that were fighting in it, was a war about a God? Said god is now kept in a super prison, and Nevron’s whole plan was to use a giant laser cannon to try and break open the prison, release said god, and potentially bring about the end of the world?” “And we stopped him.” Soren said with a slight grin. He looked at Araseph who smiled back, equally proud. Conway rubbed his forehead and gave out a long sigh. Araseph looked over at him. “You alright?” “Yeah no it’s…that’s just a lot to take in. I didn’t realize the war was so huge. I need to take a breather sorry.” He got up from the chair and tapped the seals on the wall, disabling the room’s security. As he opened the door and was about to leave, Soren quickly mentioned. “Oh by the way, forgot to mention this part but all this information is top secret.” “Naturally.” Conway said. “So if any of you are found to be guilty of spreading this information, that’s kind of treason.” Conway frowned. “And what’s the punishment for treason?” Soren hesitated. “Execution.” Araseph said. “But wait, you just told us this information. Aren’t you in trouble?” “Being an Arch-Sage comes with its perks. I’m fine but you guys...” He made a face and dragged his thumb across his throat. “Really seems like something you’d tell us beforehand…” Nora muttered. ---- Preview of Case 1's final chapter: Case 1: Epilogue It really shouldn’t have surprised her after all, of course this was the result. Nevron had looked for something within Araseph’s mind to help him understand the One Magic, another person. The most common theory for who Araseph was, had been that Fabula Nova ''made a second personality within Araseph to control the Crygis. It was such an obvious idea, for she should’ve been too young, too naïve to become the monster that tore apart the country. Thus, during the war, the one who had been a core part of Fabula Nova hadn’t necessarily been her but another personality, and that had been the excuse she had used all along. Her salvation. Her way of running from the glares of others.'' Yet Nevron couldn’t find the second personality even after his magic had kicked her out her mind. And it really shouldn’t come as surprise to her. She had been kidnapped, tortured, and spent a better part of two years learning from mass murderers and dark mages every day. She remembered waking up with the Crygis inside of her, glimpsing a life of power and dominion and one day simply letting go of all reason for that life. Nevron in all his power, couldn’t ''find a second personality because there was no second personality.'' ''She was Araseph. She was the Crygis. And no matter how much she ran away or cried she knew, deep down, she would always be the monster from Fabula Nova. ''